Basis of Unity (Revised 2006) *
The Centre is a pro-choice, sex-positive environment that operates within an anti-oppressive feminist framework and provides access to information on issues relating to our Vision. The Centre provides a space to meet, discuss, and organize with people on campus and the surrounding community who have made a commitment to the Centre’s Vision. First and foremost, the Centre works to create a safer space for students, faculty, Staff, and community members of all or no gender(s), diverse abilities and from a wide variety of ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity (GRCGED) functions within a framework of empathy and compassion. Our purpose includes: - To promote awareness and education on issues of power-structured relations. - To understand that the creation of an anti-oppressive environment is an on-going process. - To make a commitment to continually challenge ourselves to understand our identity and role in social relations of power and oppression. - To use consensus to give all members the opportunity to participate equally and contribute towards the running of the Centre and decisions affecting the GRCGED. - To support actions that work towards making it possible for all people to live and study safely on a campus free from discrimination and harassment. - To network and build alliances with like-minded services and groups in the community (as per our Vision). - To work towards maintaining a respectful, accepting, and welcoming environment where all people who experience gender oppression feel safe and secure. - To invite people from the University and Guelph communities to attend workshops, speakers, events, etc. - To facilitate commitment to a politics of resistance, which includes a holistic approach when looking at intersecting social relations of power between gender and race, class, ability, sexuality, etc. This includes interrogation of all forms of oppression, including but not limited to: white privilege, white domination, racism, colonialism, ableism, classism, gender oppression, transphobia, intersexed discrimination, queerphobia, patriarchy, etc. It is important to acknowledge that much of the work done in this area has been done by people who face multiple oppressions.